56,711 Shares in Linde PLC $LIN Purchased by Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund bought a new stake in shares of Linde PLC (NASDAQ:LIN) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 56,711 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,918,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Linde by 3.7% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 20,344,181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,558,016,000 after purchasing an additional 719,052 shares during the period. Amundi increased its stake in shares of Linde by 13.4% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 3,162,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,567,796,000 after purchasing an additional 373,012 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Linde by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,740,541 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,358,712,000 after purchasing an additional 64,078 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Linde by 28.6% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,624,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $805,475,000 after purchasing an additional 361,664 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in Linde by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,370,361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $679,370,000 after buying an additional 85,360 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LIN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Linde in a report on Monday, October 19th. Berenberg Bank restated a “buy” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Linde in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Barclays lifted their price target on Linde from $577.00 to $591.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Linde from $535.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Linde presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $553.05.

Linde Price Performance

LIN opened at $511.55 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $484.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $493.09. Linde PLC has a 12-month low of $387.78 and a 12-month high of $548.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The firm has a market cap of $234.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.99, a PEG ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.67.

Linde (NASDAQ:LIN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $4.59 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.52 by $0.07. Linde had a net margin of 19.34% and a return on equity of 20.32%. The firm had revenue of $9.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.16 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.21 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Linde PLC will post 17.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Linde Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 3rd will be issued a dividend of $1.60 per share. This represents a $6.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 3rd. Linde’s payout ratio is 42.52%.

Linde Profile

Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) is a global industrial gases and engineering company. It produces and distributes atmospheric gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon, as well as hydrogen, helium, carbon dioxide and specialty gases. The company serves customers through packaged gases, bulk deliveries, on-site production and pipeline systems.

Linde’s products and services support a broad range of industries, including healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing, chemicals, energy, refining, electronics and metals.